A stylometric reading of William Wordsworth and W. B. Yeats’s poetry: Ambivalent cravings in romantic and modernist consciousness

David Toh Kusi

doi:10.58256/rjah.v3i2.846

Authors

David Toh Kusi
kusitoh@mail.com
Department of English, ENS Yaounde, The University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2294-7775

Keywords:

ambivalence, cravings, criticism, modernist, periodization, r-stylo, romantic discourse, stylistics voyant

Abstract

What is peculiar about William Wordsworth and William Butler Yeats is that they represent two variants of the same type of consciousness. Their awareness of the world is linked to aesthetic appreciations. This paper explores this aesthetics with emphasis on the poets’ believe that art, specifically poetry, is an instrument of vision through which nature and humanity, can be appreciated and made perfect. While it is observed that very little has been written comparing Wordsworth and Yeats, this comparative critical assessment juxtaposes these self-seeking poets focusing on their ambivalent romantic yearnings. Stylometric methods with Voyant tools and “R-Stylo” are applied for quantitative and qualitative analyses of the poets’ ambivalent cravings. The question that runs through the paper is how both poets, in the context of periodization do, transcend their eras to establish visionary dimensions of the romantic quest. The results found in the analysis of both poets’s sublime consciousness display to a certain extent the representation of the artists’ contrasting moods. Such moods, however, reveal them as literary connoisseurs who transcended the boundaries of periodization and concentrated on cultural, historical, ideological and philosophical realities as means to rescue mankind from prolong affliction and psychical strain.

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Author Biography

David Toh Kusi, Department of English, ENS Yaounde, The University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon

Dr. David Toh Kusi started his career at the University of Maroua as teaching assistant from 2008-2011. He is presently Lecturer of British Literature and Contemporary Literary Studies at ENS Yaoundé and cumulates as Head of Service for Research and Cooperation in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bamenda, since 2018. He is a 2018SUSI Alumnus at Seattle University, Washington on Contemporary American Literature. He is an E-learning expert and Educational technologist with practical experiences in MOOCs4Development. He is a DH enthusiast with five international awards for DH workshops. He has published in national and international journals. He is editor in two journals, and an expert in journal establishment and maintenance. He is also a creative writer and has authored a poetry collection entitled The Cradle of my Passion.

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A stylometric reading of William Wordsworth and W. B. Yeats’s poetry: Ambivalent cravings in romantic and modernist consciousness

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Author Biography

David Toh Kusi, Department of English, ENS Yaounde, The University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon

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